Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I depend on my daughter, Angeal Valentine, and on Bjanik for all my information on the subject.
A/N—Sometimes I just seem to have to have a chapter where the only thing that happens is that the characters talk to each other. This is one of those…
(2 am, Mideel; midnight, Midgar; 8 pm, Gongaga; 4 pm, Wutai)
Tessa lay on her left side in the RV near Sephiroth, his hand in one of hers, a water bottle with a flexible straw in her other. Dr. Caperton had turned away to check on the man in the flex tube. Several Soldiers and Turks had given up their bottles for her. Strange that Shinra-issued water bottles were different for Turks and Soldiers. Wonder why... The RV lurched and Sephiroth's attention immediately went to the driver. Poor Malik. She didn't know him, but he was trying to drive slowly through the orchard to spare his passengers discomfort and at the same time drive quickly to get them to the hospital. She wondered briefly if it were some kind of ordeal to have your boss watch you drive. "So what's been happening while I've been asleep? From the bit Vincent told me, it seems that the world's in trouble."
"Yes." Sephiroth's attention wavered between his wife and the tracks through the grass the RV had made on its initial trip. Rufus had hit a number of trees in his rush to get to Tessa, and the tracks swerved and veered—oh yes, the two drivers fighting over the steering wheel when the RV pulled up… "Just get us to the road, Malik…" Tessa could tell Sephiroth wished he were driving. Perhaps they should have had Vincent drive. "Genesis was plotting around Gaia to bring down Shinra, it seems. Emperor Godo declared Wutai's independence, attacked Wutai base, and announced that his daughter was engaged to Genesis."
"What?! When was that?!"
"Oh. Four days ago—the day after you went into the tube."
"So don't you need to be going to Wutai?" Tessa was concerned. "Don't get me wrong. I certainly don't want you to leave, but it does seem you're on the wrong side of the world."
"I can't be here long. I have to get to Rocket Town almost immediately to lead the invasion forces. I did receive a message from Griegos in Wutai when we touched down at Mideel Base. A commando raid I ordered has captured Godo and his daughter. I'm sure Carlos wants to broadcast that news to the world, but I want to see Godo for myself before that happens. I'll need some time when we get to the base to communicate with Wutai." Sephiroth paused and smiled slightly. "Somehow I need to be in two places at the same time—with you for the birth and in Wutai leading the army…"
"Well, I'm glad you're here now." Tessa squeezed his fingers. Sephiroth's smile broadened, and he leaned to kiss her. Tessa's mouth opened to his. The kiss was tender and passionate in the same breath. "Hi."
"Hi, yourself." Sephiroth shook his head slightly. "I missed you so much. I'm so glad you're all right."
Tessa smiled, "Me too…" Her eyes filled with tears. "I'm so glad you're alive." Sephiroth and Tessa took a few minutes for themselves. At the rear of the RV, Cloud blushed, looked away, and thought about a girl in Nibelheim. Malik kept his eyes strictly on the tracks and then on the road. Dr. Caperton quadruple checked the man in the bag.
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Leonard Caperton came forward to check on his main patient and sat near the couple. It suddenly hit Tessa that it was rather odd that her OB/GYN was acting as a medic for the Turks in Mideel. "Leonard, how did you come to be here?"
Leonard Caperton started, and his face reddened. "I'm afraid I owe you an apology. From the Turks' investigations, it seems I was responsible for your being kidnapped in the first place." Sephiroth looked sharply at the doctor—Tseng hadn't told him this. "My dictation notes from your last examination were intercepted at the hospital by one of Genesis Rhapsodos' minions, a Samantha Silverton. To make up for that, I came along." He paused. There was another reason also. "I also rather expected you to go into labor early. Of the seventeen or so indicator signs for preterm labor, you had roughly half. I felt I needed to be here to help you in addition for making up for my failure to protect your records. I suppose I could have gone with the General's forces to Wutai, but the Turks seemed more likely to find you, so I asked for permission to go with Commander Tseng. As I told him, I was a medic in Wutai for two years, and I was able to help his people in that regard as well."
"Wait! What preterm labor signs? Why didn't we discuss this before I got into the tube?" Tessa wished now she'd not rushed so quickly into the tube before hearing this part. Dr. Caperton looked a bit uncomfortable at her question.
"Well, if everything had gone according to plan, I'd have been there waiting for you as you got out of the tube. The results essentially wouldn't have been different…" Dr. Caperton paused to take a deep breath. "You should know that you will be at risk for preterm labor in any future pregnancy. Several risk factors are related: you were carrying twins which caused your uterus to be misshapen and enlarged, and enlargement is a signal for labor to begin; you had vaginal bleeding after twenty weeks of labor; you were under extreme emotional and physical stress; and you underwent abdominal surgery during pregnancy. On top of it all, you probably also became dehydrated in the tube. I imagine you were probably also thrown around in the flex-tube. That would have added stress on your body, possibly equating to domestic violence—another risk factor." At the phrase "vaginal bleeding," Sephiroth's face had become even whiter than usual. At "domestic violence" he looked away from the conversation. He was responsible even for this…
"So for future reference, I need to have quiet, stress-free pregnancies?" Dr. Caperton nodded. "How soon after the baby is born, can I get pregnant again?"
Sephiroth jerked. He wanted more children, true, but he wasn't willing to risk Tessa's health, much less her life, for more children. Besides, he didn't think he could handle another week like this—at least not anytime soon.
"Of course, that can happen again as soon as you start ovulating, but I wouldn't recommend it for a while. Let's just get you through this pregnancy first then give your body a chance to heal… There are a couple of other issues I'd like to address before we get to the hospital, and I'd like a question of my own answered…"
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"Tessa, when we were back in the orchard, the word, 'Jenova,' came up, and you told me I really didn't want to know what it meant. If it relates to your pregnancy, I most certainly do want to know what it is. I assume it relates to the genetic manipulations that were done on the General… Tonight, I saw two winged, flying men trying to kill each other—one of whom is the father of your baby…" Dr. Caperton looked intently at Tessa, demanding an explanation.
"Tessa…" Sephiroth looked intently at his wife trying to warn her off this subject. Did the doctor truly need to know about Jenova?
Tessa could see Sephiroth's message in his eyes. "I think we'd better tell him, darling. After all, for all we know, the baby could be born with wings sticking out of its back."
"I suppose wings are no longer a secret…" Sephiroth looked away from his wife, turned his intent stare at the doctor, and decided just how much he should tell the man. "Two thousand years or so ago, an alien from space crashed on Gaia." At Caperton's look of incredulity, Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Let me assure you, it happened… Not long before I was conceived a former head of the Shinra labs discovered the alien still slightly alive. Another Shinra scientist fused the alien's genes into my DNA while I was still a fetus. That's the source of the unusual DNA I know you've discussed with my wife. The alien was called 'Jenova.' That's what Genesis was after—more Jenova tissue. Genesis Rhapsodos was a project Soldier who also underwent Jenova treatments as a fetus, but he was developed in a different program from me by the crazy scientist in that bag back there."
Tessa interrupted. "Oh, so that's who Hollander is! Do I have questions for him!"
Sephiroth shook his head. "I wouldn't suggest it, my love." He looked back at the still incredulous Dr. Caperton. "I don't know how much of Genesis' DNA was Jenovan. Tessa's test results on me have indicated that my DNA is approximately ten percent Jenovan, and that those genes are highly dominant. About six months ago, the Jenova creature was finally completely destroyed, so there is now no source of Jenova tissue on Gaia besides me and my offspring." Tessa glanced sharply at Sephiroth at this pronouncement.
Dr. Caperton realized his mouth was hanging open at this talk of aliens. He made a conscious effort to close it. "So that's the origin of your wing… and also your unusual physiology…"
"The Jenova creature had wings. Yes. Suffice it to say also, I have several unusual abilities." Sephiroth paused. He wasn't sure the doctor needed more elaboration on this subject. Tessa smiled slightly at the thought of just how they might deal with the baby being born throwing fireballs.
"Well then, I'll have to deliver the baby myself. I assume you don't want the whole world to witness the birth of a winged child." Dr. Caperton suddenly looked thoughtful. "I do wish my wife were here. She's a neonatologist. Her specialty is newborns…"
"Then be sure to have her meet us to check the baby when we get back to Midgar." Tessa winced; the contractions were getting stronger. "What else did you want to discuss?"
"Hm… Oh yes. Given that this Jenova tissue seems to be highly sought after… in certain quarters, shall we say… I think you need to determine what you want done with the placenta and the afterbirth."
"What?!" The couple chorused—more Jenova-type tissue!
"Well, normally these are simply discarded and return to the Lifestream after the baby's born, but in your baby's case, just throwing out its tissue doesn't seem to be a good idea. I imagine, too, that the tissues would also produce stagnant mako when they return to the Lifestream…" Tessa and Sephiroth nodded their heads thoughtfully. "I don't imagine that this Genesis-person was alone in his desire for Jenova tissue." Sephiroth continued to nod thoughtfully—who now might want Jenova tissue? Hm. "If you can deal with the stagnant mako, you'll probably want to dispose of the tissues yourself. On the other hand, you could try to keep the tissues someplace very safe rather than dispose of them. You should consider keeping the tissues since cord blood is rich in stem cells. The list of diseases and conditions that non-differentiated stem cells could eventually treat runs for pages, anything from leukemias and autoimmune diseases to blood abnormalities and even malignancies. Those stem cells could treat not only the baby in the future but either or both of you and any other children you may have as well. I doubt there's a list anywhere on Gaia of diseases and conditions to which Jenovans are susceptible, so you may very well need stem cells to treat any ailment to which you might succumb in the future, General."
Tessa squirmed again. She had Sephiroth's medical history from Hojo's notes, but there had never been a mention of him being sick. "Have you ever been ill, darling?"
"No. I've suffered injuries, of course, in training and on the battlefield, but these have always been treated with materia… Illness and diseases, though—no. Not that I've ever known. When I was younger, I'd get sick from mako treatments but certainly not since I've been married… I suppose I could develop resistance to materia healing—that happens sometimes. Treatment with stem cells in such a situation would be another reason to try and keep the tissues… Security for them, though. Would they be secure in your laboratory, Tessa?"
"Hmph. I'd have thought I'd have been secure in my own laboratory, but I don't know of anywhere else we could put such samples. Of course, we'd have to keep them in mako solution and eventually perhaps encase them in solid mako—easy enough to do at one of the reactors in Midgar. I suppose it will have to be there. You'd better ask Malik to be sure they have mako solution on hand at the base."
Across the RV, Cloud Strife was dozing, no longer interested in the conversation. The man in the silver bag, however, was far from asleep…
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"But for now, I need to know something. What is it that causes labor? Isn't it dangerous for the baby to be born so early?" Sephiroth looked at his wife.
Tessa shook her head, frowned, and winced with another contraction. "It's a complicated hormonal mess—not well understood—debated in the medical community." Tessa glanced at her husband. He was scrutinizing her—looking for more information. She shrugged. "The process seems to start with the baby. The baby's hypothalamus sends out hormones to the pituitary, the pituitary signals the baby's adrenals, which signal the placenta, which in turn signals the uterus to contract." Tessa paused to look at Dr. Caperton. "Once the process starts, there's no way to turn it off for longer than a couple of days. Yes?"
"Yes. That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about… Drugs can hold off labor as long as a week, but usually forty-eight hours are as long the drugs' side effects can be tolerated and are really needed to speed up the baby's lung development." Dr. Caperton looked closer at his patient. "When we get to the hospital, I'll give you an injection of a tocolytic. I want to hold you off for a couple of days, if at all possible, so that corticosteroids can speed up the baby's lung development—give it a fighting chance to breathe. You need to be aware that there are a number of side effects to the tocolytics: anxiety; heart palpitations—we'll have to monitor both you and the baby; chest pain; nausea, even vomiting; headache; low blood pressure; fever; sometimes fluid collects in the lungs, which can be life threatening; even hallucinations."
"Basically, to stop the contractions you have to turn off hormones from the baby. Correct?" Sephiroth was looking intently at the doctor.
"Yes, but there's no known way to do that! Also with Tessa's water broken and membranes ruptured, infection has become a risk… What are you thinking, General?" Dr. Caperton didn't like the look on the General's face.
"The membrane plugs could be restored with materia. Any infection could be fought with antibiotics."
"I sup-pose, but why?! With the contractions started, the baby's coming…" Dr. Caperton looked sideways at the General. "You're not thinking there's some way to stop labor?"
"Perhaps."
"Well full term within the womb is best, of course; indeed, even a few more weeks would be preferable. What do you have in mind?"
"You people! You're pathetic!" A sneering voice cut through the RV noise from the bag at Cloud's feet. "I had that baby growing at twenty times its normal growth rate, and those blasted Turks stopped me!" Hollander was awake.
Cloud bashed Hollander with the EMR rather than push the shock button. "Quiet!" Cloud raised the EMR and stared at it. "Oops." Reno's EMR was now bent at about a forty-five degree angle.
"Growth accelerant?! Could that harm the baby?" Sephiroth was alarmed. He wanted to bash Hollander a few times with the EMR himself. Too bad Strife had beaten him to it.
"I don't know, but I don't think I could have been exposed for long, so the effect should have been minimal. In fact twenty times normal should only have helped the baby…" Tessa tucked the revelation of Hollander using growth accelerant on her into the back of her brain for future consideration. Sephiroth would never knowingly allow the use of accelerants on his child—it was just too much like something Hojo would do. The thought of "something Hojo would do" caused Tessa to turn instead to another "Hojo" subject. "My love, I do have something… important… to tell you." Tessa paused. Just how was she going to break it to Sephiroth that he had a clone? Gently, she thought, but he deserved to know.
"Yes?" Sephiroth was looking out the front of the RV at the road ahead over Malik's shoulder again. About thirty miles yet, he guessed. Once they had finally got on a paved highway, Malik had pushed the RV's speed up to about eighty; probably as fast as the machine could go. They should be at the base in about twenty minutes, Sephiroth estimated.
"Did you ever consider the possibility that we didn't discover all the clones Hojo made of you?" There. She'd said it. Dead silence. Try again. "Darling, did you hear…"
"What?!" Suddenly Tessa had Sephiroth's full attention again. His eyes were greened up! "What did you say?!" The road had lost all its importance.
Tessa found she was holding her breath—not really a good idea when in labor. "When you said something to the effect that you and your offspring were the only sources of Jenova tissue left on the planet—well, that wasn't entirely… accurate…" Oh, this was not going well. The muscles of Sephiroth's face were bunching—the green was getting brighter. "Earlier this evening I met a man named 'Verdot'—I think he was the former head of the Turks?" Sephiroth's head jerked in confirmation. "It seems he found a girl wandering the Midgaran slums several years ago. He brought her with him here to Mideel when he retired from Shinra. He's certain she's a clone of you." Sephiroth's face was actually turning red. Wow, what a reaction… "He said he had found a collapsed laboratory of Hojo's that was filled with dozens of clones of you in tubes. All the clones were dead, though one tube had been smashed, and its occupant was missing. He thinks she had been in that tube…"
"No… Hojo couldn't have managed this... There's a female clone of me walking around Mideel? How?! Hojo couldn't have accomplished this!" The dream of Lucy turning into Jenova, and Hojo's nasal voice sneering, "Finally, a viable clone," replayed itself through Sephiroth's mind.
"I'm afraid with dozens, maybe even a hundred clones, even Hojo could get lucky. Verdot seemed to think they dated from the time just before you went to Wutai. Hojo may have been attempting to make replacements for you in case you didn't come back from the war... The clones in my laboratory seemed to date from the period when you returned from Wutai; with you safely returned, and presumably the initial clones destroyed, perhaps Hojo didn't feel he needed so many clones as insurance policies."
"We have to find that laboratory. Make sure there's nothing left…" Empty all the tubes. Dispose of the bodies. Destroy everything… Damn Hojo…
Tessa agreed, nodded, and then winced. Another contraction. "Yes. I know. I think Verdot can lead us there." She was afraid, however, that they were slightly off track. "Darling, Verdot has legally adopted the girl as his daughter. She appears to be about eighteen or nineteen, I'd guess. She's sentient. Her name is Kamui, and you saw her getting off the RV with Rufus Shinra… Remember?"
Sephiroth looked sharply at his wife. Realization hit him; the silver-haired young woman with the swollen eye and two swords who had been yelling at Rufus! Well, at least she seemed to be able to stand up to authority—not necessarily a good trait! Since she was still alive, presumably she could fight. A second realization hit Sephiroth then. You knew!
Of course. Vincent responded.
You were with Verdot. You had to have heard all this when Tessa did!
Yes… You're tired, aren't you? Took you a while to catch on… Now that you're a big brother, you'll have to watch out for your baby sister…
Oh no. We are not even going there…
We'll see…And how're Tessa and my grandchild?
Don't change the subject… You're enjoying this!
As I said… Of course…
Sephiroth gave a mental sigh. Tessa's contractions are about six minutes apart… We're probably halfway to the base. Hm… Two can play this game… The baby is a girl, and we are calling her Lucrecia Valentine--"Lucy" for short.
…
Would you two shut up?! A new—female—voice had entered their mental conversation. If you're going to talk about me behind my back, please do it when I'm not awake, or something! All right?! Sheesh…
And let me guess. You're this sentient, female clone of me I keep hearing about.
I certainly hope not!
What!!
You two have been talking in my head for months! Going on and on and on. I kept hearing voices nobody else could hear—I thought I was going insane! For your information, I'm me! I'm Kamui! I'm Verdot's daughter! So there! Get used to it and be quiet!
…
Somehow Sephiroth caught amusement in Vincent's silence. This was going to take some getting used to…
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With the Soldiers and Turks underground in the New Banora facilities—and gone from the battlefield—the young man in the mask and straightjacket with mechanical wings again stepped from the shadows. "There you are." He beat his wings and was lifted into the air. The tips of his wings were mechanical hands rather than thumb claws that would have been expected on bats. He reached a hand and caught a ring of tissue wrapped with a silver hair from the tip of a branch high in an apple tree. "Tsk, tsk, Genesis… Look what has become of you…"
A/N—The day after I wrote the section in which Dr. Caperton discusses the potential of stem cell research, the results of a three-year study where researchers caused "regular" pancreatic cells to turn into insulin-producing beta cells in mice, without using stem cells, was announced. I decided to keep the stem cell discussion, however, because (1) the potential for future applications of cord-blood stem cell research is still valid, and (2) on Gaia the discarded tissues containing Jenova cells would just turn into piles of stagnant mako—apparently only something Vincent Valentine can dispose of (licking his fingers as he goes)! Thanks for reading!